Shell-don Shocked
by Melody Hope13
Summary: Penny's cousin from Minnesota comes to visit for the summer. If it were just a normal girl, the guys would be fine, but Serra is no normal girl. She turns everyone upside-down with a twitch of her cat tail and a sly smile.


"C'mon! What happened to my cow-tipping buddy?" Serra shouted down to her, rolling her eyes in annoyance at Penny's pathetic lack of strength. "The big city's turned your muscles to mush!" Setting all six bags down and twirling her honey blonde hair, she leaned against the elevator that hadn't worked for years; at least that was what her new roommate had told her. As she stood there impatiently, a tall man came out. Noticing his blue t-shirt, plain except for the golden Star Fleet symbol upon it, she smiled warmly at him.

He spotted her and stopped dead in his tracks, scanning everything about her appearance. His eyes started at the top, furrowing his eyebrows at the fuzzy cat ears that seemed to blend in with her hair almost perfectly. Next, his eyes caught the tank top with the words Anime Detour across her chest, down to the ear's matching tail hooked to the back of her black miniskirt and all the way down to her black platform boots. After what seemed like forever, he softly called over his shoulder. "Um... all of you need to see this."

A few seconds later, three men came out and stood behind him. Upon noticing Serra's presence, they all did the same cat ears to toe scan. While they did their assessment, she did her own. The first one she saw was tall and his expression was slightly shocked and surprised. Well, she _was_ walking around in her anime gear... The next one down the line wore glasses, had a dorky but knowing smile and height-wise was a sharp contrast to the first man, being shorter than she was even without the three inches added by her boots. The third looked a bit like a weasel with his strange grin and hungry eyes. Feeling the sudden urge to cover her breasts, she crossed her arms over her chest. The fourth and last of the group of men was an Indian who seemed almost afraid of her.

All of them having finished their scans of each other, Serra finally spoke. "So, you like Star Trek? I've seen almost every episode of each series. The Next Generation is my favorite, but that's probably because Picard is the best captain. How about you?" Out of complete and utter shock, the Indian man fainted and fell to the floor hard. "Um... is he alright?"

Penny grunted as she lifted the suitcase up onto the landing. "Ugh! I need to work out more..." she muttered as she finally got to the top floor. Pulling the strand of hair out of her eyes, she beamed a friendly smile at the group. "Oh, hey guys! Wait, where's Raj? I thought he was going with you."

The short man with the glasses spoke up. "Oh, he's on the ground." he said, nonchalantly.

"Uh... ok then?" she raised her eyebrows in confusion, then shrugged it off as normal for them. "Anyway, this is my cousin Serra. Her name is spelled kind of weird though. It's S-e-r-r-a instead of S-a-r-a-h." she shrugged. "Something about being named after a card or something. Anyway, I figured that'd be right up your alley."

Serra chuckled nervously. "Yeah, I was named after Serra Angel from Magic the Gathering." At that, the weasel-like man fell on top of the first.

"And that's Howard down. I'm Leonard, by the way." the short guy said. "This is Sheldon," he said, referring to the giant. "And the two down there are Raj and Howard. I'm Penny's boyfriend, it's nice to meet you."

Serra takes his offered hand and gently shakes it. "So you're the one I keep hearing about?"

"You talk about me?" he asks Penny, who shakes her head no quite energetically.

"Nope, that would be her daddy. Uncle Wyatt never shuts up about you two, so much that I think you're his real life OTP." Serra giggles.

"I know I'm probably going to regret asking this, but we're his what?" Penny asks while Leonard just stands there with an amused expression on his face.

"OTP, it stands for One True Pairing. It's a fandom term. It's a couple that you like the idea of them being in a relationship and you never usually pair them with anyone else. Normally, it's applied to characters but some people do it with real life people without even realizing it, like Uncle Wyatt." Serra finished her explanation with a grin. Sheldon turned around with his mouth open and ran back into his apartment, causing Leonard to chuckle.

"Anyway," Penny sighed, "let's get your stuff into my apartment." she said, grabbing the handle of the rolling suitcase and leading her over to her door, Leonard following behind with three of the bags Serra had been carrying earlier. Setting all of the luggage next to the couch, Penny collapsed on it.

"So, what do you do around here for fun?" Serra asked.

"Well, I usually go shopping, but sweetie, I'm kind of tired right now. How about we do that tomorrow ok?" Penny smiled weakly.

"Fair enough. I'll even cook dinner tonight!"

Penny's smile fell. "I don't really have much to cook with..."

"Don't worry about it! I'll go shopping and get what I need ok?"

"Honey, I couldn't let you do that! You just got here."

"And you agreed to take me at such a short notice, the least I could do is cook for you."

After a minute, Penny smiled again and sat up to give her a hug. "Has anyone ever told you how incredibly sweet you are?"

Serra giggled and hugged her back. "Thanks Penny."

Penny finally let go and laid back again, looking towards the door. "Oh, there you two are!" she said, talking to the still dazed Raj and Howard who were standing there, staring at Serra. "Hey Leonard, weren't you guys all about to go to the comic book store? I bet Serra would love to go with you."

Serra's attention had been grabbed. "There's a comic book store here?"

"Yeah, you can come with if you want." Leonard said, grinning mischievously.

"Thank you! I promise I won't be a bother! Bye Penny!" she waved, following him out with the other two behind her, muttering to themselves.

Leonard knocked on the door of the apartment the one named Sheldon had disappeared into. "Sheldon, we're going to the shop now, are you coming?"

He immediately answered the door and, with a short nod, came out of his apartment. "This ought to be an interesting experiment of human behavior." And with that, they all left the building and walked down the block to their favorite shop.

As they walked in, everyone in the shop went silent upon seeing the cat girl. Even Stuart, the shop owner, was taken aback by her anime girl get-up. None of them were prepared for what would happen next. Her face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning as she ran around, fangirling about each different series. After a minute of this, seven of the men in that shop fell over, petrified in the best way possible, once again including Howard and Raj as Stuart stood there laughing along with Leonard while Sheldon started furiously jotting down notes.

Finally, she calmed down enough to walk up to the counter, smiling innocently at Stuart. "Your shop is really cool by the way. We don't really have many like this where I live and not many libraries carry graphic novels of any kind..."

He smiled back. "I think your ears are cool."

"Thank you." she curtsied. "So, do you carry manga and anime too?"

"Manga yes, anime no. Right this way." he said, walking around the counter, stepping over Raj and Howard.

After a moment, she realizes it that there are only four people other than herself still standing in the store. "Um... what happened with them? Maybe we should call an ambulance..."

"Nah, they'll be fine in about ten minutes or so." he said, guiding her over three others. "So, what was your name anyway?"

"Serra, Serra Angel. Like the Magic card." she said, finding it the easiest way for anyone to actually remember her name.

"That's pretty cool." he said as he guided her towards a corner of the store where someone stood with their back to her. As they got closer, the figure turned around. "This is my little sister, Ronni." he said, gesturing towards the girl by the manga. Her hair was cut short and her glasses made her eyes look a little bit bigger, but it just made her look adorably geeky. "The guys are used to her by now."

"No they're not," she smirked. "They think I'm a ten year old boy."

Stuart rolled his eyes. "Anyway, Ronni, this is Serra. You're Penny's cousin, right? That's what Leonard told me, but you're... well, to put it mildly, very different."

"Yep! I'm her cousin from Minnesota."

"Well, Ronni loves manga more than I do, so I'll let her take over here. Is that alright?"

"That's fine." the two girls answer at the same time, then giggle as he walks away.

Stuart walked back to the counter and pulled out his notebook, drawing passionately. Leonard walked around, looking for a new comic to buy. Spotting one that he liked, he pulled it out of a stunned victim's hand and walked back to Sheldon, who was watching the girls and still taking notes.

"Done." Stuart says, having drawn a depiction of Ronni and Serra linked arm in arm, walking along together, leaving a trail of paralyzed men and comic books in their path as Serra blows a kiss in front of her with a little heart floating by her head. Leonard looks out over the wreckage and nods in agreement.

"Here's my cell number" She said, handing Ronni a slip of paper as they walked over to the counter, a pile of both comic books and mangas in Serra's arms. Setting them down on the counter, she spotted Stuart's notebook. "What's that?"

"That's his sketchbook." Ronni answered for him. "He rarely pulls it out anymore though..." she raised an eyebrow at her big brother as she picked it up, examining the art. The corners of her mouth turned up. "He likes you." she said, showing her the picture.

She blushed lightly, her eyes going wide as she looked over the picture. "This is fantastic! Your art style is beautiful! Is that... me?"

"Yeah, do you like it? You and Ronni seemed to be getting along so well over there and I thought I should draw the shock-wave before they all recovered." he smirked as he gazed out over the floor. One of the guys seemed to recover enough to reach for his inhaler, taking a puff then collapsing again as he looked up at the girl that had caused the Medusa-like effect on them all. "See what I mean?"

She giggles. "I never get this treatment back home. Most guys want a gal that wears pounds of make-up," she shrugs. "That's never been my thing. I'll take video games and books over Barbies and lipstick any day. I figure everyone displays their inner selves at least a little bit on the outside. A girl who spends so much time looking like Barbie, or a guy spends looking like Ken... Well, in my opinion, that just shows how plastic and fake they are."

Sheldon's head pops up. "So, if I understand this correctly, you're implying that one's vainness about their appearance will show how shallow they are in personality."

She turns to him, a bit surprised that he's finally spoken to her. "Basically, yes."

"Just wanted to make sure I understood the underlying message to your artsy wording." he said, then went back to scribbling notes down.

Feeling like she was some sort of mental patient under observation, she decided it best to move on and ignore it. "Anyway, this is the best artwork I've ever seen! You only just drew this?"

"Yep." Ronni smirked and walked back over to the manga. Stuart leaned over the counter and spoke softly. "I'll make you a deal. You can keep it if you come down to the shop once a week."

"Sure, but I think after about the third or fourth time, the guys will get used to me."

"Oh I know. I have my reasons." he smiled softly, looking over at Ronni.

"No problem, I'll take the deal _if_ you sign the art." she said, oblivious to his plan.

He grinned from ear. "You've got a deal!" he said, signing it with a flourish.

"Thanks!" she carefully slid the drawing into a sleeve with one of the half dozen comic books she'd bought. "I should probably get a job while I'm here, otherwise I'll go broke rather fast, buying comics every time I come in here."

"Actually, I could use some help straightening everything. I'd pay you. In fact, you'd probably bring a few more guys to the shop." He says jokingly.

"Sure, that would be awesome. When should I start?"

"How about tomorrow?"

"Great, just let me tell Penny first so she doesn't worry." she giggles. "I'll be here around ten, is that alright?"

"Perfect."

She gently nudged Leonard jokingly. "Where's the nearest grocery store? I need to pick up the ingredients before I spend all my money here."

He chuckled and jokingly nudged her back. "I'll drive you. It's a little too far to walk."

"Thanks." she said, unable to believe his kindness.

After picking up all the ingredients for Tater-Tot Hot Dish, Leonard drove her back home and helped her getting the bags up the stairs. "Thanks again, I probably would've had to walk the whole way and back."

"Well around here, that's not the safest thing..."

"Thanks again! Well, I should probably start cooking. Penny's probably getting hungry. You know... I bought more than enough food if you wanted to join us."

"Maybe some other time. You need to catch up with her. How long has it been since you two last saw each other?"

"Let's see..." after taking a few moments to think. "I was eleven years old, so six years."

"Wow! And your parents sent you to live with her?"

"Actually, I asked. They were going to send me to live with great auntie Marge... No thank you! That woman has a dozen cats that I do _not_ want climbing all over me or possibly even mistaking me for one of their own." they laugh together, remembering the strange looks she got in the grocery store. "Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow then."

"See you tomorrow." he nodded, then walked into his apartment after handing her the other bag of groceries.

Walking into Penny's apartment, she saw that she hadn't moved from the couch and had just simply turned on the TV. "I'm home!" she announced proudly.

"Hey! Did you have fun with the guys at the comic shop?"

"Yeah, tons! After I throw this into the oven, I'll show you what I go while I was there." she giggles, then starts opening all the bags and cans up. Digging out a glass casserole dish, she threw each part in with equal measure, adding an extra layer of tater tots on top.

"Alright, now where did I put it?"

"Put what?"

"The stuff I got from the shop."

"I didn't see you bring anything in from the comic book shop honey."

Suddenly, it dawned on her. "I'll be right back!" she said before running across the hall and knocking on the door.

"Who in the world could that be this late at night?" she heard Sheldon say from the inside.

"Nobody else get up" she heard Leonard's sarcastic voice growing larger as he got closer. She giggled just as he opened the door. "Oh, hey Serra." she could see Sheldon, Howard and Raj all sitting on the couch in the living room. Sheldon paused the game, the other two abruptly stopped whatever conversation they'd been having before.

"Hey guys," she waved at them behind Leonard. "Oh and Leonard, I think you must've grabbed my bag with your comic book store stuff too." she smiled nervously at the mix up.

"Oh! Yeah, I think it's in my room. Come on in and wait while I go get it ok?"

"Yeah, sure. Thanks." she said, stepping in and walking over to the guys as he walked off to his room.

She smiled at them then looked at the screen. "Soul Caliber Four? Sweet! You guys mind if I try? Or are you in the middle of a tournament?"

"You can have my spot." Howard said, handing her the controller.

"Oh, thanks!" she took the controller happily and happily sat in the chair. "You're sure you don't mind?"

The one named Raj whispered something in Howard's ear. "Yeah, I wanna see what she's got too."

"Um... I'm not the best, but I suppose I'm decent..." she said as she chose her favorite character, Amy. "Who's my first opponent?"

"Well, if we go from the worst to the best, that would be Raj." Sheldon said, handing his controller over to him.

"Alright. Are you ready to go Raj?" He nodded nervously in response. "Ok. Don't go easy on me. I want to see how good I actually am ok?" Again, he nodded and picked his character.

The fight ended just as quickly as it had begun. With a few kicks, spins, and flourishes of her sword, she had won. Amy blew a kiss towards the screen and giggled.

"Who's next?" she asked the trio.

"That was all three rounds?" asked Howard, thinking it had gone a bit fast.

"Yep! Who's next?" she asked again with a sweet and polite tone.

Howard took the controller from Raj, picking Yoshimitsu.

"Oh, he's pretty cool, but I can never get the controls right for him." she said, picking Ivy. "I love how inventive Ivy and her father Cervantes are to have created the gun-blade and her viper-blades." Howard blinks several times as he looks over at her.

"You've played before?"

"Yeah, I love this game! I especially love reading the creative stories behind the characters. Sometimes I write my own story when I make a new character or I'll make a character that already exists. For example, on my Xbox, I have a Taki-styled Mystique."

"You like X-Men too!?"

"Yeah, love it. All of it, the cartoons, the movies, and the comic books. You ready to play?"

He nodded and began the battle, sitting forward in his chair with a determined look on his face. The battle began with Yoshimitsu's signature katana pogo-stick move. Serra swore under her breath as she moved Ivy away as fast as possible, but was unable to escape. Having been knocked down, she rolled her away and stood her back up quickly. As her revenge, she ran at him and just before he could pull off his next move, she pulled the trigger on the remote to use Ivy's grapple move. Ivy knocked Yoshimitsu down, wrapped her whip-like sword around his neck, sat on his back, and yanked it back hard.

"Frack!" Howard cursed.

"You like Battlestar Galactica?" Serra asked, never looking away from the screen.

"Yeah, why?"

"When I play this game," she said, pulling off her finishing move, stabbing him through the heart at a distance then pulling him to her like Scorpion from Mortal Kombat, "I'm as heartless as a Cylon."

"Gah!" he said, seeing the finish screen. "Alright, so you won the first round. Don't get cocky."

"I wasn't, I was simply stating a fact. You ready to go?" she asked as each character said their usual introduction.

"You're on, Toaster!" He said, attacking her as soon as the screen said 'fight'.

Back and forth, they exchanged blows. After a while, Serra realized his fatal flaw. Howard never blocked, not once. Taking that to her advantage, she blocked and let him hit her sword only to grab him before he could get another hit in and finish him off a second time.

As the third round started, Howard furrowed his eyebrows together, putting in his all. He had to win this round or he would be finished for good. The third round began. Ivy took a few blows, but gave back twice as much. She finished by jumping over his head and in one swoop, quickly turning around and running him through the torso with her blade.

Leonard came out with a silver bag in his hand just as Howard held his head in his hands, resting them on his knees as he groaned. "Hey, I found all your books. What's wrong with Howard?"

"He just got his virtual behind handed to him." Sheldon said matter-of-factly. "Actually, you're just in time. It's your turn to face off against her."

"What?" he asked as he handed over her bag.

"I sort of got pulled into a small tournament with them." she said as she set the bag down on the floor next to her.

"Oh! I'm glad to see you're all getting along." he said, adjusting his glasses.

"Yes, now sit down Leonard. It's your turn." Sheldon said as Raj got off the couch to make room while he took the controller from the sore Howard and handed it over.

"Alright, sure. Why not?" he said, sitting down.

"Same goes for you, since you weren't in the room to hear it. No going easy on me."

"You've got it." he said, choosing Raphael. Serra chose Amy and began the battle.

Leonard was much better than Howard, more skilled and parrying her blows. They went back and forth in a grueling fencing duel, but after twenty minutes, Serra had won in five rounds. "Hope only brings disappointment." came from the television in Amy's adorable little voice.

"You're really good." Leonard admitted, setting the controller down on the table.

"You mean for a girl..." she rolled her eyes, sighing. "I knew it! You went easy on me!"

"Not at all! I tried my hardest and you won, fair and square."

"Really? Cool!" she punched the air happily.

"And now it's Sheldon's turn."

"Actually, I've got to go pull dinner out of the oven! Frack, I hope it didn't burn! It was nice meeting you all and thanks for letting me play." she smiles, then grabs her bag and practically flies out the door and back into Penny's apartment.

"Oh hey honey! I was wondering where you went." she says, serving up dinner.

"I'm sorry! I didn't realize what time it was..."

"Oh, that's fine." she waved her off. "So took you so long anyway?" she asked, handing her a plate of food, the smell of tater-tots permeating throughout the apartment.

"Oh that! I saw the guys playing a fighting game and sort of got pulled in. Sorry..."

"It's ok, stop apologizing! You cooked dinner, I think I'm capable of getting it out of the oven." she said as the two of them sat down on the couch together. Penny took a bite and laid her head on the back of the couch, enjoying the simple but delicious meal. "Mm! I haven't had this in forever!"

"Well, if you would've visited more often..."

"I know, I know! However, you're here for a few months. I was only able to visit for a week at a time." she says, hoping it'll make up for lost time.

"True... anyway! I got a few comic books, a couple mangas, and a chibi Winrey doll. Oh, and the owner of the store drew me! It was _really_ cool!" she says, showing Penny the drawing.

"Was this what happened at the store?" she giggles, noticing all the guys on the ground in the picture.

"I couldn't help it and I fangirled over all the comic books... Next thing I knew, almost everyone just sort of dropped." she blushed. "Just like Henry and Raja earlier. Kind of weird if you ask me."

"Oh, you mean Howard and Raj!" she laughed even harder. "The guys around here aren't exactly used to a girl that actually likes that stuff. Hell, it shocked Howard when I found Bernadette for him. She's a geek too."

"Oh? What's she into? Star Trek? Merlin? Doctor Who? Harry Potter?"

"Biology."

"Oh, so she's a nerd then."

"What's the difference? Aren't they cinnamons or something?"

"Synonyms, and not necessarily. A geek means you're fanatic about something. I'm an anime geek as well as a science fiction geek. I like them a lot."

"Ok, then how is a nerd any different?"

"A nerd is someone who's really smart and an expert in something. For example, I'm a word nerd because I'm good at reading and writing. Your friend is a science nerd. She's smart and is an expert in biology."

Penny nods. "Ok, got it."

"You didn't actually understand a word I just said, did you?"

"Nope." she said, forking another mouthful of food in. After swallowing it down, she then looked at the picture again. "Hey, who's this other gal?"

"That's Stuart's little sister, Ronni."

"I didn't know Stuart had a sister."

"Yep! She's my age and she works in the shop."

"Aw! You've made a friend already!" Penny gushes.

"Yep! It's nice to have someone to talk about yaoi with. By the way, I'm gonna be working in the shop. Is that alright?"

"How come?"

"I'm gonna need money if I want to buy more comic books, and it wouldn't be right of me to mooch money off you since you're putting up with me all summer long..."

"Honey, if anybody's 'putting up' with anybody," she said, setting down her plate and using air quotes. "It would be you putting up with the insane asylum across the hall." Together, they laugh like sisters. After they've both managed to calm down, Penny smiles. "I miss this, hanging out with you, the girl talk, the tea parties, and the sleepovers that we had once a year."

"Then why did you stop visiting?" she asks, pouting.

"Aw honey!" she says, pulling her into a hug, rubbing her shoulder. "I don't know... everything just got so busy and I honestly didn't think it meant that much to you."

"It meant everything to me. I only got to see you once a year, but you're my best friend."

Penny's voice cracked as she tried to fight back tears. "How about we have a slumber party just like we used to?"

"Really?"

"Yes, starting now!" she said, walking back to her room and coming back out with mask mixes, enough nail supplies to run her own salon, tons of hair bands, and a hairbrush. She set them all on the couch, then scurried into the kitchen to make some tea. "Earl Grey or Chamomile?" she asked as she put a silver tea kettle on the stove, in other words asking her how long she wanted to be up.

"Earl Grey." she answered excitedly. Penny smiled, dropped a bag of Earl Grey into the two cups, then walked back over and plopped on the couch. They stayed up all night, talking about everything the other had missed. They laughed as they drank enough tea to stay awake until two in the morning as they


End file.
